Integration with Outlook and Mailchimp

Hi everyone, I have two queries.

1. Other than using Accelerator or Outlook Lite- are they any other options out there that can integrate Outlook with Sage CRM?In the alternative, are there other email clients that can integrate smoothly with Sage CRM? For example Gmail, Thunderbird etc.

I just find it so troublesome that the calendaring function does not integrate with Sage CRM, amongst other things.

2. Are there any other options other than using MailChimp for email marketing? 

Thanks